Designer in Residence

We have seven of the most promising startups I’ve ever seen in eight years of hosting the Launch Festival and across 80 investments (and Uber and Thumbtack.com are in those 80, so it’s saying something).

Each of these startups represent another 30+ qualified applicants we didn’t take (so, their the top 3% of the class).

We will be accepting a “Designer in Residence” and a “Developer in Residence” -- DIRs for short -- for the Incubator starting next Thursday.

The goal is to have the DIRs either:

a) join one of the seven startups as a founder

b) start their own startup during the Incubator (which we will fund with $25,000)

1. You don’t have to quit your job right now, you simply need to be able to get to the Thursday night incubator classes by 5PM

2. The worst case scenario is that you sit in on 12 of the most informative three hour classes taking place in the Valley -- for free!

3. You need to be world class, not up-and-coming. If you think you’ll be great coming out of this experience you’re not the right person. You need to be an elite developer or designer coming into the program--that’s why we’re giving you the slot!

4. Designers: we need to see exceptional work.

5. Your participation will be kept 100% confidential--or I will tweet to 200k+ folks that you got the slot. Your choice!

7. You’ll give feedback to each team, each week. So, not free work unless you feel like helping out. The concept is for you to get a feel for the other teams and decide if you want to jump on their rocket ships.